Joshua wrote: "No, this is not the way it would happen. Even if the power is enough to vaporize only a few per cent of the water (by mass), then gas will occupy nearly all the volume (ninety some per cent). So, there is no way that the chimney would fill up with water; that would block the high volume of gas forming behind it. What you have is high velocity gas in the presence of a small volume of liquid. The liquid gets entrained in the gas in the form of small droplets and gets sent through the chimney as a mist. This is not hard to conceive. Just think of an ultrasonic mister, or google 2-phase flow. The mist behaves like a gas, but has a very different enthalpy. That's Rossi's game. It's amazing how many smart people he has sucked in with it."
I did as you suggest and searched for '2-phase flow', and even refined it by adding "steam quality" to the search terms... I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it only took the first two references I looked at to satisfy me that your explanation here is very unlikely, if not a total guess. First ref I looked at was wikipedia, which makes no mention of entrainment of liquid water in the vapor... the "2-phases" are referring to the fact that liquid is flowing thru a heated pipe, which is apparently heated over more than just a few inches, and there are three distinct regions: a region where you have all liquid, then a transition region where there are varying degrees of liquid and vapor, and then vapor. No mention of entrainment. Then I found this article discussing 2-phase flow in horizontal vs vertical piping, and it is at least CONTRADICTORY to your claim: A relation between steam quality and void fraction in two-phase flow Hideo Fujie First published online: 17 JUN 2004, AIChE Journal, Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 227-232, March 1964 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aic.690100219/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library +will+be+disrupted+2+July+from+10-12+BST+for+monthly+maintenance If you read the fourth paragraph, it says: "The effects of entrained liquid quantity on the void fractions as well as on the momentum changes are neglected because in accordance with Dukler (3) the entrained liquid quantity is small compared with the quantity of the film along the wall, unless the gas velocity in the core exceeds 100ft./sec." Sounds to me like the liquid water on the walls is more than likely greater than what's entrained, unless the flowrate is real high... Certainly not the case we are dealing with. In addition, your use of the term 'high velocity gas' seems to be in contradiction to the MEASURED pressure inside the chimney, which is ambient, within the error limit of the sensor???? My problem with you Josh, is that you bring up what SEEM like reasonable objections, but there is no real detailed explanation as to how its relevent... this 2-phase issue is a perfect example. Yes, 2-phase flow does happen in steam generation systems, and there's a shitload of research on it primarily because of boiling water reactors which produce the majority of the planet's electricity, but you have NO specifics as to exactly how the 2-phase flow supports your CLAIM that there is alot of entrained liquid water in Rossi's system, nor any third-party supporting references to support your position. In fact, the second webpage I went to in the search that you suggested I do, resulted in finding a statement that could very well refute your claim... it is at least contradictory. Gotta git... -Mark
